Pakistan reacts to ex-Kashmir governor’s revelations on Pulwama
Pakistan says latest statements made with the aid of using Satya Pal Malik, former governor of Indian-administered Kashmir, “vindicate its stance” at the 2019 Pulwama assault. In February that year, forty Indian paramilitary squaddies had been killed in a suicide assault withinside the Pulwama district of the disputed Himalayan area additionally claimed with the aid of using Pakistan because 1947.
New Delhi had accused Islamabad of orchestrating the assault which added the 2 nuclear powers to the edge of every other war. But the Pakistani authorities denied its involvement withinside the assault. Malik, who become the governor of Indian-administered Kashmir on the time of the assault, informed India`s The Wire information internet site in an interview that he “realised that every one the onus of the assault might be placed on Pakistan” to obtain electoral benefits.
India`s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had again and again noted the Pulwama assault to mobilise electorate withinside the 2019 fashionable elections, wherein he again to electricity with a bigger majority in parliament. In his interview, Malik, the previous governor, blamed Pakistan for the assault however delivered that it befell because of the “incompetence” and “carelessness” of Modi`s authorities.
Malik claimed that Modi informed him to “live quiet” approximately the safety lapses he allegedly raised with the authorities. He delivered that India`s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had additionally informed him to stay silent over the alleged lapses.
“His [Malik`s] disclosures display how the Indian management has habitually used the bogey of terrorism from Pakistan to develop its sham victimhood narrative and the Hindutva schedule, absolutely for home political gains,” a declaration from Pakistan`s overseas ministry stated on Sunday.
“Hindutva” refers back to the Hindu supremacist schedule pursued with the aid of using Modi`s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the way to convert a constitutionally secular India into an ethnic Hindu state, in which its two hundred million Muslim minority might be decreased to second-magnificence status.
Pakistan`s overseas workplace stated India ought to solution the questions raised with the aid of using Malik. “It is time India be held liable for the movements that imperilled nearby peace withinside the aftermath of Pulwama assault,” it stated.
“We wish that the worldwide network might take cognisance of the modern-day revelations and notice via India`s propaganda marketing campaign in opposition to Pakistan pushed with the aid of using egocentric political concerns and primarily based totally on lies and deceit.”
Abdul Basit, a former Pakistani envoy to India, informed Al Jazeera that Malik`s claims uncovered the Modi authorities.
“This interview absolutely exposes what the Indian authorities below Narendra Modi is as much as and what they’re doing, with their anti-Pakistan, anti-Kashmir narrative in addition to allegations approximately so-known as cross-border terrorism and maligning Kashmir`s battle for freedom,” he informed Al Jazeera.
Basit, who become Pakistan`s ambassador to India among 2014 and 2017, stated the Modi authorities is specializing in home politics with their “anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistani and anti-Kashmir rhetoric” to unite the “extremist Hindu electorate”. However, he delivered that Pakistan wishes to do extra to fight “Indian propaganda”.
“In order to show Indian designs in opposition to Pakistan and undermining the battle of Kashmiris, we can’t depend upon simply one declaration. It is needed on a part of Pakistan to make sustained effort. Diplomacy isn’t approximately one event, however it’s miles a process, and we want to have well-deliberate, well-calibrated efforts to counter them,” he informed Al Jazeera.
But India`s overseas coverage professional Radha Kumar stated she believes Pakistan become in the back of the Pulwama assault. “It become clean from intelligence reviews that the assault become deliberate and supported with the aid of using organizations in Pakistan, so if the Modi management desired a reason, it had one. The actual purpose in what Malik claims to were informed become to cowl up the shockingly irresponsible selection of then-Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the passivity of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval,” she informed Al Jazeera.
Kumar, who authored Paradise at War: A Political History of Kashmir, says Malik`s remarks won’t hurt the Indian high minister. “Modi`s supporters don`t care if Pakistan is centered on a pretext. What will harm is that if the competition makes a factor of the way little the Modi management cared for the lives of our squaddies, and the way gently they take countrywide security.”
